Takeover of the Rocca boat brand
Stéphane Jaubert, already distributor of the Italian semi-rigid and Salpa star in France, is working on relaunching the Rocca brand. Matured for several years, this diversification project becomes concrete in 2020. "I bought the Rocca boat brand with a partner from its previous owner. The latter had taken it over from the founder in 1995, with the project of rebuilding the boats. But these did not see the light of day. We had already approached him in 2013, but he didn't want to sell. We finally ended up in 2020. Already an importer of Salpa in France, I wanted to diversify into other products. There were then 2 possibilities: importing a new brand or buying an existing name to rebuild boats. Why Rocca? It's a bit irrational, but they already had an image of modern boats at the time by taking over the design of American boats in the 1970s" explains the entrepreneur.
A positioning of top-of-the-range and avant-garde boats
Rocca presents in autumn 2020 its first model, a 7.50-metre open hull, named San Remo. "The design is deliberately avant-garde. We worked with a naval architect from Wally's. The positioning is top-of-the-range with a high quality finish. It should be able to be used as a yacht tender" specifies the president of Rocca SAS. The boat is proposed turnkey, without a list of options. An electric motorization is nevertheless possible for precise specifications, such as inland waters with strict environmental regulations, a market that Stéphane Jaubert considers particularly promising.
An industrial scheme for rapid development
The boats are built for Rocca in Tunisia by a subcontracted shipyard. The Marseille logistics base already used by the importer Salpa allows him to finalize the fitting out of the boats. "For the marketing, we already have the 16 Salpa dealers and we are in negotiations with Mercury for the motorization and thus have access in part to its network," says Stéphane Jaubert.
The industrial capacity of the yard allows the construction of 50 to 60 boats per year. Pending the release of a 5.50 m model and a 9 m boat by 2021, the planned rate is one San Rémo every 4 weeks. "We are aiming for 6 to 10 boats in the coming months, a reasonably rapid growth" concludes the president of Rocca SAS.
